has turned into a big mess. the outer loop of the beltway is already looking like a parking lot. good morning. welcome to "news 4 today." i'm eun yang. >> good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. thousands of people heading back to work for the first time since sandy. the president touring some of the hardest hit areas including the jersey shore. that storm blamed for at least 50 deaths. one in anne arundel county, two in virginia as well. sandy shaping up to be one of the costliest natural disasters in american history. it's estimated to cost between $20 billion and $50 billion in damage. plus students heading back to school. power outages keeping some closed. in fairfax county, langley high school, sleepy hollow all closed. jefferson elementary in d.c. will not have school today.

barcroft elementary in arlington is closed. in howard county, bowman bridge elementary is closed because of power outages there. 17 schools in anne arundel county are also closed. as for other closings and delays in virginia, manassas park city schools are closed, and two-hour delays in culpeper, frederick, fauquier, and shenandoah county with buses using snow emergency routes. frederick county schools are on a two-hour delay. >> and then there's the power question. right now utility companies working to restore electricity to thousands of area customers. pepco says it hopes to have 90% of the outages caused by sandy restored by 10:00 this morning. pepco customers are without power. most of the outages are in virginia. dominion virginia power reporting more than 20,000

customers in our area in the dark. it hopes to have power restored to all of its customers by tomorrow night. novec has 3,200 customers with no electricity. and bge has to restore power to more than 24,000 homes and businesses in our area, most of them in anne arundel county. >> let's get a check of the forecast. meteorologist tom kierein joins us, saying there is rain in the area right now. the good news, for all those working out to get us back to a sense of normalcy, to restore power and the cleanup. storm team 4 radar showing a few snow showers in the mountains. we do have a few sprinkles most of northern virginia and the potomac, parts of montgomery county, getting ai few sprinkles there. this little batch heading to the north and east. that's going to be the end of it forred today. t the rivers running very high. coastal flood warnings in the potomac and the bay. during areas of high tide, might

be two, three feet above average at high tide. a chilly morning. going to need your winter coat. you may need your umbrella too as we may have a few sprimnkles around 7:00, 8:00. afternoon, mid-50s. little sunshine, blustery wind too clouding up by late afternoon. i'm return in ten minutes with a look at traffic. now, here's danella. >> thanks, tom. checking breaking news on the road. outer loop of the beltway has the left shoulder lane getting by. this is as you travel to new hampshire avenue. serious crash there. let's try chopper once again. here they go. serious crash there again just the left shoulder lane is squeezing by the accident here. let's talk about delays. over three miles. outer loop as you approach new hampshire avenue. if you can avoid this, i would. it's going to take some time to clear this accident. let's head over to i-95 in virginia. just heavy on the brakes at fairfax county parkway.

northbound, no accidents reported. from quantico, 30 minutes to get to the beltway right now. over to i-270, very sluggish as you make your way from frederick to 109. as you pass 109, that's it. delays start clear from germantown through rockville as you connect through the beltway in that area. eun, over to you. 6:05. metro is back open for the first time during rush hour. trains and buses will run on a normal weekday schedule. except delay on some buses because of falling debris. amtrak is also running again but has limited service. no acela express service along the northeast corridor, and no service at all to new york city because of flooded tunnels. back here in virginia, marc and vre service back to norm l a, but power problems and flooding could cause some delays. be prepared. the monocacy river still

swollen swollen, flooding the pine creek park area. the threat of the river rising even higher continues, and you'll probably need some extra time to get to work if you have to pass through upper marlboro. this is what it looked like there last night. water street clearly living up to its name. tony tull live in upper marlboro this morning. how's it looking now? >> reporter: i come bringing good news. last half hour, we checked with some of the crews here atwater street, and they hope to have it open by rush hour. one of the supervisors just showed up, and you can actually see a crew car there by the road. he thinks they're going to have it opened up in the next few minutes. good news, if you're coming up pennsylvania avenue, you don't have to get off old crane. you can take the water street exit if you're headed to the prince george's county courthouse. a supervisor thinking in the next couple minutes they'll have this cleaned up and opened up. last night quite a different story. i know you were showing video just a couple of seconds ago.

take a look once again. news 4 crews out last night, a very, very different scene atwater street, a lot of water flowing. that was the case through prince george's county and through route 1. those are not the only closures we have. if you're in bowie, queen anne's bridge, that is closed. governor's bridge road also closed. lan ham, 24th avenue at fair lawn street. and if you're in upper marlboro, buck lane and chrysler lane, those remain closed. aaron and eun, once again, i'm bringing you good news. they have a crew vehicle, and i expect, the supervisor was saying, in the next 10 to 15 minutes, they should have water street opened back up. if you're heading over to the prince george's county courthouse, good news. you'll have a nice commute into the courthouse. tony tull, news 4. 6:06. early voting will resume today in our area. sandy closed early voting centers across our region yesterday and monday. the district is making up for the lost days by extending early

voting hours. you can now vote until 9:00 p.m. in maryland, you have two days to vote early. the state's early the voting centers will be open through friday. they'll also open early at 8:00 a.m. the voting centers will remain open until 9:00 tonight. president obama will spend part of the day with one of mitt romney's biggest supporters. he'll survey the damage sandy left behind with governor chris christie. the new jersey governor has criticized the president in weeks and months, but he commended the commander in chief yesterday on his handling of the disaster. mitt romney will restart his campaign today with events in florida. the republican presidential nominee cancelled events the past two days out of respect for sandy's victim. yesterday he helped collect supplies that his supporters donated in ohio. 6:07 is your time. 43 degrees. the major damage sandy caused to a space shuttle. >> the congressman who lost his home in a storm. anncr: washington's revolving door.

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the shuttle enterprise survived years in the shuttle program, no damage. but it wasn't as lucky during sandy. the prototype nasa shuttle which is on exhibit on board the intrepid sea, air, and space museum in new york suffered damage during the storm. it was inside an inflatable dome which deflated. some of the panels ripped off by wind. time for weather and traffic on the ones. meteorologist tom kierein with more on the forecast for today. hoping things are getting better weather-wise. >> looking up at the moon, this is a live picture showing the moon trying to peek through. some of the clouds racing through. moon just past full, which is also causing our tides to be a little higher in addition to the flooding going on. great live picture.

storm team 4 radar showing scattered sprinkles in northern virginia and into the suburbs in maryland north of the beltway. a few still lingering snow showers. you might need an umbrella this morning. thoos areas in blue in the 30s. a cold start. around the metro area, near 40 degrees. by 7:00 a.m., still hovering near 40 with sprimpg ls around. sunshine in the late afternoon. highs mid-50s. we've got traffic trouble. danella has the latest. good morning. >> good morning. i'm still tracking breaking news on the beltway. outer loop at new hampshire avenue, serious accident still slowing you down. chopper 4 is over the delays. as you get closer, you are able to pass single file to the left. the left shoulder lane gets you by. as we mention delays, jammed in college park. just hardly moving at route 1. delays on the outer loop are about four miles right now. as you try to make your way to

new hampshire avenue there. again, just that left shoulder lane getting you by. i-66 eastbound just a bit sluggish from sudley road as you head to centerville. past centerville road to get to the beltway, nice and clear. not bad at all. i'm back in ten. aaron and eun, back over to you. time is 6:13. thousands of flight delays and cancellations because of hurricane sandy. how long it could take for the nation's skies to get back to normal.

"and what's your name?" "oh, it's flo." "and what do you do?" "oh, i sell insurance like no one else." "oh, that's nice." "thank you." now, that's progressive. call or click today. welcome back. president obama will head to the jersey shore to tour the damage caused by governor chris christie. it comes as people are being rescued in towns still surrounded by floodwaters. brian, good morning. we're having problems with

brian's audio. he is live in seaside heights. you can see devastated by sandy. the rising water leaving a path of destruction. here's brian. sorry about that. we're having technical problems. just incredible to look at the damage. the president and chris christie will be touring the damage today. and air force one is in new jersey helping with a levee breach in new jersey. the breach sent four feet of water pouring into the streets. governor chris christie said the search and rescue operation saved hundreds of lives. still no sign of two new york city boys swept away in sandy's waters. the 2 and 4-year-olds were rideing in a car with their mother when the storm's powerful wind and water overwhelmed

staten island monday night. the two tried to escape the rising water when the two were swept away. a massive fire in queens destroyed the home of a republican congressman. bob turner was one of the 80 homes destroyed in the fire in breezy point, queens. he expressed gratitude he and his family were safe. turner took andrew weiner's seat after a text messaging scandal, and he is about to lose his seat after redistricting. we are getting a look at flooding inside new york city's transit system as it happened. this security video from monday night was shot during high tide in the tunnel sha goes alongside the east river. the transit agency says it hopes to have all of the tunnels open by monday. i said andrew weiner. i meant anthony weiner, of

course. news 4's megan mcgrath is live at regular an national airport. megan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, aaron. we're seeing delays and cancellations in both the arrivals and departures at reagan national airport. take a look at the board. cancelled, cancelled. those are flights coming from laguardia this morning. laguardia in new york, still closed because of all the damage anded flooi eflooding they expe. we're seeing 40 cancellations. we've got a lot of passengers who are stranded. they're scrambling to get seats. you can see many of them here, going to the ticket counters, and trying to get seats on the flights who are leaving this morning. some of the flights on the board, they're listed as being on time. when you have this number of cancellations, like what we've seen here over the last couple of days, it takes a while to recover from that. you have a snowball effect.

there are a limited number of seats, a lot of competition for those seats. it is still very difficult to book those flights out of here. we talked to folks who have been here for a couple of days. one gentleman, two days he's been to a couple of different airports just trying to get home. >> i'm trying to get back to columbus, ohio. just trying to get back home. >> reporter: how long have you been here? what are they saying to you? >> about two days. i was over in dulles. they cancelled flights there, and i got over here. >> reporter: and you can see folks trying to make their arrangements here, trying to get where they need to be. some folks we've seen sacked out on the benches up here as well as down below by the security gates there. some of them have been here overnight. some have been here for a couple of days. they're hoping to get out today. it's going to be a couple of days before things get completely back to normal.

reporting live in reagan national. i'm megan mcgrath. >> thank you, megan. just about 6:21. time for weather and traffic on the ones. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein working really hard to follow sandy. now we're going to figure out what's going on in our forecast. >> now the cleanup. we're going to dry out for that in order to accelerate. not right now, a few sprinkles into northern virginia and east and west virginia, and a few sprinkles in montgomery county up to frederick county. a lot of this drifting off to the east is going to be dissipating over the next couple of hours. it's a cold morning. upper 30s to around 40 degrees. storm team 4 four-day forecast thankfully will be drying out as the day progresses. a little sun coming out. and the winds will be blustery too. highs mid-50s. cold mornings on friday and saturday. afternoon highs mid-50s with sunshine. great weather for the skins game on sunday. highs mid-50s. looks like we'll stay dry as well first part of next week. i'll return in ten minutes. danella with our traffic

troubles. still tracking breaking news on the beltway. outer loop at new hampshire avenue. travel lanes are blocked, but the left shoulder lane gets you by. here's a live look from chopper 4. delays on the outer loop, you're at about four miles. taking i-95, you're slow as well. let me show you, as you make your way from 212. solid delays. i know it's difficult to see. as you head southbound from powder mill road, you're heavy on the brakes because it's just virtually impossible to connect to the outer loop of the beltway because of the crash there. let's head over to 395. here northbound at duke street, slow to seminary. to get to the 14th street bridge, that drive will take you 15 minutes. keep in mind, if you're taking local roads, still seeing high standing water, downed trees. give yourself extra time. it is still a tricky commute. aaron and eun, back over to you. >> danella, thank you. virginia's man hunt for a guy accused of attacking three people with pipe bombs. >> continuing coverage of hurricane sandy, what you need

anncr: which do you believe? what mitt romney's tv ads say about women? or what mitt romney himself says? mitt romney: do i believe the supreme court... should overturn roe v. wade? yes. and it would be my preference that they, that they... reverse roe v. wade. hopefully reverse roe v. wade. overturn roe v. wade. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. anncr: no matter what mitt romney's ads say. we know what he'll do.

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welcome back. 6:25. lots of ghouls and goblins expected to be out for halloween. tonight many busy georgetown streets will be cut off to traffic. those restrictions are in place at 6:00 tonight until 4:00 a.m. meantime, halloween activities like trick or treat or parades are being changed or cancelled due to sandy. he can check out our list or add your changes to it at nbcwashington.com. the wizards can't be too happy about the start of their regular season. they fell 94-84. the wizards played from behind almost the entire game. they scored 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. it just wasn't meant to be. rookie bradley beale struggled in his debut, scoring just eight points. people need to be careful. last couple of days, people cooped up, stir crazy, going out

for halloween. just be safe. 6:26 is our time. ahead, we'll tell you what's open and what's not. anncr: it's said that character is what we do...

when we think no one is looking. mitt romney: believe that they are victims. anncr: mitt romney thought no one was looking when... he attacked forty-seven percent of americans. his companies shipped jobs overseas. his plan cuts millionaires' taxes, but raises yours. he'll voucherize medicare... and make catastrophic cuts to education. so remember what romney said... and what his plan would do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

at 6:30, breaking news. big delays on the outer loop of the beltway. the first commute after hurricane sandy has become a halloween nightmare. let's go straight to danella sealock. >> good morning. i am tracking the breaking news on the beltway. outer loop, new hampshire avenue, only the left shoulder lane gets you by the crash.

that crash involves three vehicles. delays on i-95, the beltway, are about four miles. if you're taking i-95 southbound, you're jammed as well from powder mill road. it's a slow trip trying to get onto the outer loop of the beltway. another accident causing delays, 50 inbound just past the beltway, it looks like the left lanes are blocked here, possibly the right shoulder lane is getting by. i'm calling on this right now. this is new into the first 4 traffic office. you are jammed inbound 50 approaching the beltway. aaron and eun, back over to you. >> danella, thanks so much. we'll check in with you soon. >> and thank you for joining us for "news 4 today." i'm aaron gale crist. >> and i'm even yaunun yang. this just in, right now sandy is to blame for more than 50 deaths. 6.8 million homes lost power. utility officials say it could be days before power is restored and the subway system is running

again. sandy is shaping up to be one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the u.s. so far it's estimated to cost between $20 billion and $50 billion in damages. that said, most of you are headed back to work. the federal government is open today. power out anls keeping some schools closed. in fairfax county, langley high school, holmes middle school, sleepy hollow elementary, and spring hill elementary schools are closed today. jefferson academy in d.c. will not have classes today. excel academy and public charter school is closed in prince george's county. barcroft elementary in arlington is closed. and in howard county, bowman bridge elementary is closed because of no power. there are also 17 schools in anne arundel county that are closed. as for other closings and delays, in virginia, here now manassas park city schools closed. there are two hour delays in culpeper, fauquier, frederick, and shenandoah counties. school buses will use the snow

emergency routes in shenandoah. loudoun county has a one-hour delay today. frederick county schools in maryland are on a two-hour delay. in west virginia, pendleton county schools are closed. thousands of area homes lost power in sandy. dominion virginia has more than 20,000 area customers in the dark. novec has 2,800. pepco has restored power to all but 503 of local customers. bge customers, more than 23,000 without power. local bge homes and businesses among them, and most of them in anne arundel county. >> let's turn right to storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein and see what we can expect weather-wise. the storm that was sandy has weakened a lot. it's drifting north away. keep going away. keep on going. spreading parts of west virginia and western maryland. western maryland got pounded,

two feet of heavy wet snow. they lost power as well as down through davis, thomas, canaan valley, west virginia. a few sprinkles of light rain in fairfax county, northern prince william, up into northern fauquier. temperatures are cold. all these areas in dark blue, upper 30s. parts of prince george's and southern maryland and parts of virginia too. airs in light blue near 40 degrees. that's around the bay and right on the tide alpotomac. here's how we're looking around the region closer in. 40 degrees, montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties. hour by hour throughout the day. little sunshine through midafternoon. mid-50s. and clouding up after that. i'll return in ten minutes. eun? >> many to, thanks so much. 6:34 now. metro is back open in time for

the morning rush for the first time in two days. trains and buses will run on a normal weekday schedule. expect delays on bus routes because of fallen trees and debris. amtrak is also running again but has limited service. no acela express service on the northeast corridor and no service at all to new york city because of flooded tunnels. here in virginia, marc and vre service back to normal, but power problems and flooding could cause delays. today president obama will see the devastation sandy left behind firsthand. he'll travel to new jersey to assess the damage there. that state's governor chris christie will join him for his tour. christie is one of the mitt romney's biggest supporters. he commended the president yesterday on his handling of the crisis in the northeast. businesses in the potomac river have cleaning up to do. this is video of high tide. several feet of water surrounding businesses in old town, alexandria. news 4's melissa mollet has been on the ground surveying some of that damage, looking at the

water that has receded a bit but managed to creep back up. the expectation is the water is not quite done in old town. melissa mollet live with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, aaron. you're right. we've been talking with tom kierein, and he's saying we could get worse. we're obviously going to get worse at high tide at 10:06 and worse again at 10:30. tomorrow might be the day we're at five feet above normal. you might remember we were out here yesterday in morning and evening with the high tide area. an extension of the potomac river standing at 11:00 a.m. about six inches high. this entire area again at king and union this morning totally shut down, as far as i can see, several blocks in each direction. you can see behind me we still have sandbags up and down the

road. and tarp on the front of some of these restaurants because they know it's going to let a little worse before things completely dry out. take a look at the video we shot last night, you can see the water sitting on the road and approaching some of the businesses and restaurants. homes on some of these streets as well. just not the one we're on this morning. for a lot of these businesses, actually, not the worst flooding they've seen. the worst was in 2003 with hurricane isabelle. another thing to think about is the georgetown waterfront. we covered store yids over the past year and a half with them flooding. they're doing just fine. live in old town, alexandria, melissa mollet, news 4. back to you. the atf is confirming that a stafford county home raided by fbi agents is connected to pipe bomb attacks in northern virginia. investigators say they're searching for a man who they believe threw pipe bombs at three homes in stafford and fredericksburg yesterday.

the houses belong to a stafford county sheriff's deputy, the suspect's girlfriend and another law enforcement officer. nobody was hurt in any of the attacks. federal agents are not saying who they believe is responsible. >> 6:37. 43 degrees. the deal that means another star wars trilogy is not too far, far away. plus another video you'll be talking about. dramatic rescues between hurricane sandy and a tie for the first responders of 9/11. take a look at the live pictures on the beltway. the backup is for miles now. [ minto ] you know, those ads saying mitt romney

would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme. so i looked into it. turns out, romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life. this issue's important to me,

but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we just can't afford four more years. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

welcome back. the nationals season may have ended on a sour note, but there's reason for the nats to celebrate. adam laroche won the national league gold glove for first base. it's the first time he's

received the prestigious award. three orioles won american league gold gloves as well. congrats. president obama will join new jersey governor chris christie this morning to tour storm damage along the state's ravaged coast. it comes as millions more dollars are being injected into states affected by the storm. nbc's danielle leigh is in toms river with more on the recovery efforts there. danielle, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. i'm standing on the road that should connect all of us in the mainland. all of us on the jersey shore. so close yesterday. take a look at what we're seeing. and all along the top of the pat patio. just evidence of the lives ripped to shreds because of the storm. really all across the jersey

shore, we're seeing stories of immense devastation, flooding. homes covered. boardwalks destroyed. i got a chance to talk to some of the people rescued from jersey shore. many people throughout new jersey still without power. that was one of the things on governor chris christie's mind as president obama comes to tour and see the damage. reporting live in new jersey, i'm danielle lee. back to you. 6:43. take a live look over the nation's capital. we're looking for things to be just like that. >> storm team 4 meteorologist. just a few scattered sprinkles in our north and western suburbs right now. off the panhandle of west

virginia and into western maryland. upper 30s to around 40. then by noontime, have a little sun out for your lunch hour around 50 degrees. a little blustery southwest wind, reaching mid-50s by midafternoon. storm team 4 seven day outlook, an danella, how's traffic? beltway at new hampshire avenue, just the left shoulder lane gets you by the crash there. chopper 4 is over the crash now. if you're traveling the outer loop of the baelt way, delays about four miles.

i-50 in maryland. crash out of the road, but delays on i-50 inbound at two miles. and i-66 as you make your way eastbound from fairfax county parkway, you are slow. in the shoulder lane on the right, seeing activity. less checked travel. we are continuing coverage of the aftermath of sandy. we want to take you to breaking news out on the jersey shore. we've got amazing video for you. the wnbc chopper is going to take you live to the scene over just a series of fires. this is in a central new jersey shore town. what we're seeing here, many little fires, many close to the waterfront. it's still unclear if they were started by natural gas line or some downed power lines. but moments ago we were able to see the chopper actually zoom in, and what we notice is there was a lot of housing debris that

was on fire right now. what we heard from the nbc crews is that no one is out there right now as far as response is concerned. and that's because this is still a very tough situation, as you can imagine. the firefighters simply do not have access to the shore town. i'm angie goff at the news 4 live desk. now back to you. new video this morning of dramatic rescue on camera. check this out. an nypd chopper at the house in staten island. the helicopter used is the helicopter 23, and that chopper is named after 23 police officers. killed on 9/11. mitt romney will campaign today and tomorrow. he postponed his campaign for several days out of respect for sandy's victims. he helped collect supplies yesterday. president obama will spend part of the day with one of the

romney's biggest supporters. he'll join governor chris christie for a tour of storm damage in the garden state. the governor has praised the president for handling of the disaster. sites across the region closed yesterday and monday because of sandy. d.c. is extending early voting hours until 9:00 tonight. in maryland, early voting is now extended until friday instead of ending tomorrow. in virginia, election officials ask electoral boards to extend absentee voting hours. the governors of both maryland and virginia are headed to the eastern shore to tour storm damage. virginia governor bob mcdonnell will go to chincoteague island. while maryland governor martin o'malley will check out ocean city. about 100 feet of the iconic fishing pier was destroyed and they saw as much as three feet of water due to flooding. o'malley will also visit the bayside town of cristfield, which saw the most flooding since gloria in 1985.

people stuck at the airport will once again try to make their way home. reagan national airport, some flights are getting out, but travelers examine still expect big delays and cancellations. news 4's megan mcgrath live with more. >> reporter: good morning, aaron. we are not back to normal the areagan national airport. take a look out at the tarmac and some of the jet ways. you can see we have ground crews and don't have any planes. a lot of cancellations at reagan national this morning. about 40 up on the board. we have a lot of passengers who are just stuck. take a look at the benches on the first floor. we encountered people who have been here for two days. we had flights cancelled. they just can't get a seat. that is the difficulty. there are so many people who had their planes cancelled and so few seats. a lot of competition for those

seats. a lot of people finding the planes stuck. airlines trying to shuffle planes and bring more personnel in to get everything back up and running. it is going to take a while. we're not expecting things to get back to normal for several more days yet. we're also expecting to see more cancellations as the day wears on. it's not just happening here at reagan national airport but at every airport along the east coast and really impacting the entire country's airports. reporting live from reagan national, megan mcgrath, news 4. wall street reopened for the first time since hurricane sandy. cnbc's jackie deangelis joins us with more on the storm damage there. >> good morning, eun. the new york financial markets will get back to business today after being closed the past two days because of the storm. the last time the new york stock exchange was closed more than one day because of weather was in 1888 because of a snowstorm. meanwhile, stock futures are higher at the opening bell but uncertain what trading will be

like today. the nyse and nymex are opening the trading floors, but many traders may not be able to get to work because of the new york subway system, and many trains into the cities could be closed for days, if not weeks, because of flooding. mean tile, sci-fi nerds, dig out your princess lay ya costume because disney is buying star wars. the deal is about $4 billion. george lucas will become disney's second largest individual shareholder with a 2.2% stake. the surprise in the deal, disney plans at least three more star wars films with the first set for release in 2015. disney has a good track record taking over other studios, first with pixar and more recently with marvel. back over to you. >> star wars fans are rejoicing. jackie, thank you. 6:50 right now. this morning some people in west virginia are waking up to more than a foot of snow. the weather channel's janelle klein has a look at the damage at snowshoe.

>> reporter: aaron, thousands of people are waking up in west virginia without power. the governor's office is saying now that more than 300,000 people are in the dark this morning as they wake up without any power or without any heat as a direct result of the storm caused by hurricane sandy. in fact, the repair of those lines may be very tough this morning because the weather continues to be so bad. there mountainous area means that helicopters are one main way that crews are getting into those lines to both assess the damage and to repair those lines, and because it continues to be so windy and so foggy with this storm, helicopters are having a difficult time doing that. travel on the roads also very tough. this storm has shut down more than 30 roads and highways as well as a major interstate. 45 miles of an interstate along west virginia-pennsylvania border has been closed because of this storm. not an easy storm to battle. the governor's office trying to

help. they have dispatched national guard troops throughout the state. prepared to open about 50 smell t shelters around west virginia and will offer 7 million meals the next two days to help people get through it. the recovery for this storm is expected to take at least several days. >> janelle, thanks for the reporting there. we bring in tom kierein. you told us the back side of this storm will have snow for a lot of folks out west. boy, did they get it. out in garrett county too, they got tons of snow. here is a photo sent in from one of our viewers from the savage river lodge. this is from yesterday afternoon. look at all that snow. they got about two feet of snow out there. they do not have any power in much of garrett county. if you have any photos storm related, weather related, send them to weather@nbcwashington.com. right now storm team 4 radar showing out in garrett county, thankfully the snow has ended. still snow showers in pennsylvania. a few sprinkles in fairfax

county. little specks of green sprinkles, loudoun county and the panhandle of west virginia. snowflakes melting as they hit the surface. right now it's cold out of the mountains. only in the 30s. dark blue are near freezing. areas in light blue around 40. near 40 in the metro area. we'll hold steady in 40s through the next couple of hours. by noon time, sun in and out. we'll have it into the afternoon, but then clouding up as we reach the mid-50s. storm team 4 four-day forecast. breezy this afternoon, tonight and tomorrow, partly cloudy thursday. a lot of sun friday, saturday, and sunday. cold morning. cool afternoon. all the way into the first part of next week. danella, how's traffic now? it is a mess on the beltway. i'll still following breaking news. that earlier accident, outer loop at new hampshire avenue, still blocking your travel lanes. left shoulder lane is getting by.

view from chopper 4, terrible delays, at least four miles. if you're traveling in prince george's county, making your way from route 50 to i-95. you're at 15 miles an hour. urging drivers, if they can get off at greenbelt road and take that all the way as it connects to university boulevard, that's a better route for you. heading over to i-95 in maryland, feeling the jam southbound at 212 powder mill road. just jammed. southbound delays on i-95 in maryland, 18 miles an hour. virtually impossible to connect to the outer loop of the beltway. i-95 in virginia, slow past lorton. sluggish to the beltway. from wince william to the beltway, 26 miles an hour. 6:54 now. breaking news out of new jersey. live pictures coming into us right now of fires in mannalaken

new jersey. this is housing debris on fire in this small town. >> natalie morales from the "today" show will be in a helicopter this morning. coming up in just a few minutes, she's going to be touring the damage and have more on this fire from new jersey. and that is -- actually, let's go to tom and get one last look at the forecast. >> thankfully, we'll be drying out as we do the storm cleanup today and the next several days. here's the seven-day outlook. highs mid-50s every day until the first part of next week with cold mornings. a bit blustery today, tonight, and tomorrow. the winds will diminish as we get into the weekend. may have a few scattered sprinkles around this morning. sunshine in and out. and the dry pattern does continue all the way through the weekend and first part of next week. danella, the traffic trouble continues. it does continue. if you can avoid the outer loop of the beltway, i would. taking a look from chopper 4,

just sluggish. delays start in prince george's county, jammed trying to get to new hampshire avenue there. left shoulder lane gets you by. >> thank you, danella. appreciate that. thank you for starting your day with us. the "today" show is next. we'll be back in 25 minutes with weather, traffic, and any breaking news. [ earnest ] out of the blue one day,

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